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She found it hard to believe but Vaun probably was dead. Every other person in his neighborhood had died and he was nowhere to be found. It had disillusioned her from the fantasy of becoming strong enough to stop all crime by herself. A mere gas pipe explosion had instantaneously killed the strongest person she knew. In the face of reality she truly was nothing more than just another flicker of life, her existence would make no significant change to the course of the future.

No amount of training could change the fact that a single well placed bullet or explosion could completely annihilate all her efforts. She opened her phone to call Vaun one more time but found a text from her sister instead.

‘Did you hear about the new super schools popping up around the country?’

‘What do you mean?’

‘Apparently a bunch of people with superpowers are recruiting people for training.’

‘It’s not a good time to be making jokes, Alisa.’

‘I’m not kidding, look at the video I sent.’

She opened the video sent to her and watched as a series of videos played. All of them displaying men and women performing feats that were inhuman, from lifting cars to calling magical beasts into being they truly were worthy of being labeled as having superpowers. Whoever had done the cgi had done a wonderful job.

‘Stop wasting my time, I have other things to do.’

‘They say that the one committing crimes also has superpowers. Do you think that maybe Vaun has powers too? You said he was crazy strong right?”

She shut off her phone and got back in her car. She had been receiving news of explosions since yesterday morning from Andrew.

Ring! Ring! Ring!

Andrew’s distinctive ringtone played and she picked up her phone.

“Did you hear about the new training we are going to recieve?”

“What?”

“Apparently we are going to get special training to help us keep the people with super powers under control.”

“How did Alisa get you to join in on her prank?”

“Where have you been? You haven't heard the news about super humans yet? Even the president has come out to declare it as real.”

What was going on in this god forsaken world?

***

What the hell had happened? Why did that man suddenly abandon her? After all that he had done just to claim her back from her family. Something had definitely gone wrong. The only problem was that she didn’t know what had gone wrong. Was this a test of loyalty? She couldn’t trace his soul but she could still trace that girl's soul. She was already there when he took her so she was probably still by his side.

***

“Come here!”

I was starting to get a little annoyed at how often these guys were bothering me.

“What do you want now? Can’t a guy train in peace?”

“You will be killed if you do not come here immediately!”

“Oh really? Go ahead and kill me then. I’ll be waiting.”

“Restrain him!”

The group of soldiers rushed out from behind him with ropes and began to tie me up.

“Don’t try any weird shit, your death won’t be my fault.”

I let them tie me up and drag me away. I was brought before another man who was almost as imposing as Elaine’s father.

“What now?”

“Did you kill them?”

“Which them? I’ve killed quite a large amount of thems.”

“The soldiers in your barracks, did you kill them?”

“Yep.”

“Why did you do so?”

“I didn’t like the fact that they were alive.”

“…You are to be-”

“Shut the fuck up! I was enjoying our little I’m a prisoner game but I’ve grown tired of it. In the next moment you will decide whether I’m going to be killing your clan or the enemy of your clan.”

I shifted while still restrained and set myself aflame. I released every other ability I had aside from the poison one and silently stared at the commander. I needed to grow stronger and I needed to do it fast, this stupid little prisoner thing wasn’t going to work. The soldiers next to me weren’t idiots and had already transformed to attack me. Through further experimentation I had learned how to create a barrier of air that heavily weakened their attacks.

What I hadn’t learned was that using frost and fire together would turn my flames blue… and that the blue flames would freeze things instead of burn them. How was that even possible? What was their source of fuel? They even spread through the air and began traveling on the ground. This was not good! What the fuck!? I turned off the frost abilities and began breathing fire on them to kill them off but it only made things worse. The flames traveled along the stream of fire and nearly froze my mouth shut.

The sphere of blue flame was only growing larger as I continued to fuck up and was almost about to reach the commander. I guess this was it, I destroyed the world by accidently making cold fire. What kind of fire just starts burning everything? Extinguish! Extinguish! Holy shit! That actually worked. Or maybe it just ran out of fuel, whatever the case it was a good thing. I walked around observing the damage I caused and had a brief taste of what the ice age must have been like.

All the soldiers in the room had been turned into frozen sculptures. They were stuck in all kinds of forms, between fully shifted, unaware of what had even happened, running towards me with anger or away from me in fear. If I ever had to call anything art then this would be it, the true emotions and physical beauty all frozen into a timeless masterpiece. To be fair it was kind of cheating because I had used real living beings but anyone who looked at it would have to admit that it truly was unique. I ripped my eyes away from the artwork I had created and focused them on the commander who was now frozen in fear.

“That was a minor accident. You know, like dropping cigarette ash on a drop of oil, or forgetting that you left the stove on. I didn’t mean to do it. Just point me in the direction of the enemy and I’ll go that way, no questions asked.”

He lifted his trembling hand and used his finger to direct me to what I could only hope were the enemies. On my way out of the room I took a bite from each popsicle and quickly munched on the icy snacks. There was no point in wasting something perfectly good. While walking in the direction he had pointed me I received numerous strange gazes. Now that I thought about it I also had black hair, so how were they able to tell I was different?

You’re asian you dumbass.

Oh right, I had forgotten about that. I couldn’t trust the commander to give me the right directions so maybe I should go find Elaine. She was more likely to know the details than he was.

***

Mary had been wandering in the forest for quite some time now. The outskirts of Los Angeles were an entrance to the realm of the shifters. A treaty had been signed stating that shifters and practitioners wouldn’t trespass boundaries. This had been done to avoid war and conflict. Both sides had more than enough resources in their realms for their own survival and avoiding contact with one another was the easiest way to avoid trouble.

Crossing over might start a war… but it was also the only way for her to gain his trust. In previous generations she might have forsaken him but this generation's world destroyer was a being that excelled even among his predecessor’s achievements. She crossed through the boundary between realms and continued tracking down the soul of the girl.

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…

Infiltrating the clan had not been easy, aside from the numerous high level shifters the method of identification for shifters was an entirely different world. Based on a completely biological security system it was difficult to perfectly imitate physical features. Even if she looked like them it would be impossible to convince them that she belonged to their clan. Every single face that went in and out was recognized.

She had simply taken the rougher method and dug a hole beneath the wall while disguising herself with an arsenal of spells. She tunneled directly beneath the girl and checked for any other souls before breaking out of the ground. The girl was momentarily startled until she saw Mary’s face.

“Where’s Vaun?”

“My dad sent him to the slave squad.”

“And you let him?”

“I’ve been trying to convince my mom to let him out.”

“Where is the slave squad?”

“You can’t go outside right now, everyone’s on high alert for outsiders.”

Boom!

The sound of buildings crumbling and intense fighting shocked them out of their conversation. They bolted outside and saw a humanoid beast fighting against a group of giant cats that towered over it. The beast’s mouth opened and guttural words erupted from its throat.

“I’m giving you fucks a chance! I’ll burn this whole village to the ground if you don’t stop annoying me!”

The next cat that swiped at it was suddenly engulfed in blue flames that quickly turned it into an icy sculpture.

“I’m warning you! You will bear the guilt of causing the death of your entire clan! Use that tiny fucking brain of yours to realize that if I wanted you dead you would already be in hell.”

The cats paused for a brief moment before all slowly shifting back into their human forms.

“What do you want from us, if it is my daughter you wish to have then just finish killing me.”

“No, I just want to kill some shifters. Point me in the right direction and I’ll go, that’s all I wanted from the beginning. I guess some people are really too stupid to realize when a miracle falls into their laps.”

Ding! Ding! Ding! Ding! Ding! Ding!

“Enemy attack!”

Giant birds flew overhead and the entire zoo had broken through the walls and were slaughtering black cats with great haste.

***

These idiots had really brought this upon themselves. With their methods they would have imprisoned Jesus himself had he descended. My urge to spare them had lessened to an extreme degree. There was no use keeping a bunch of primitive brain dead fools alive, they were highly likely to betray me at some point in the future. There truly were no redeeming features about them, even humans were somewhat redeemable.

I should just let them die. I had given them a perfectly good chance to solve their problems and they had chosen quite possibly the worst route of action. Fuck it, I’ll just let it play out like it would have without me. I sat down and watched the carnage unfold before me.

“Vaun!”

Was that? It was! What was she doing here? Did she perhaps have some strange attachment to me now?

“What’s up?”

“We should escape while we can.”

“No, there's going to be a lot of leftover bodies. Just sit here with me.”

The midg- I mean Elaine was following closely behind Mary and took a seat next to me as well.

“Can you save them?”

“I could… but why should I?”

“I know they haven’t treated you that well but-”

“If I wasn’t as lucky as I am I would have died in that arena, I don’t particularly recall anyone doing anything to help me then. If you want to help them maybe you should go do something, it’s not like I didn’t give you the chance to get stronger. What is with people and not putting in effort to save themselves?”

“I’m not strong enough to save them!”

“Doesn’t that suck. You’ve had powers your whole life and you still managed to be weaker than a dumbass like me. Your parents did a terrible job raising you, if the best they can produce is something like you then they might as well die. Further spread of their genes is detrimental to the rest of the world.”

“Please! I’m begging you!”

“If begging worked I’d be doing it right now. I think your dad is quite close to dying, look at him.”

“Aghgh!”

Her eyes became bloodshot and I could almost taste the anger flowing from her body. Would she go through some special kind of awakening? Like one of those trash protagonists from a shitty novel? I waited… and waited a little more… nothing changed. Was her dad dead yet? Maybe she was waiting for her dad to die before unleashing her powers. I looked back at him and- what kind of bullshit was this?

All the cat shifters were now visibly larger, more muscular, and completely berserk. So this was the kind of fuckery at play here, she simply had the ability to make everyone else unlock their rage mode. This was even dumber than I thought, but when I really thought about it. It was kind of ridiculous how fast I had been growing, maybe everyone in this world had broken abilities, I just hadn’t been able to find them.

With the help of their plot armor the cat shifters had been able to make the attackers retreat with heavy losses. The feedback loop of their emotions kept them in a constant state of rage though. They had even gone as far as turning back to attack me. I still couldn’t understand how stupid you would have to be to attack the person standing right next to your source of power. All I had to do was grab Elaine by the neck and choke her a little bit to make them calm down.

While they recovered from their wounds, losses, and anger I scrambled around taking bites from every shifter I could find. The most important one being the bird types, having wings would make my life much easier. I had estimated about a couple of hundred attackers based on what I saw. There were also the corpses of the cat shifters as well. The remaining shifters wanted to stop me but what could they do? It wasn’t like they were alive anymore, no one would waste their life protecting the dignity of a mere corpse.

As I ate more I slowly increased in size. In my shifter form I had nearly reached the height of one of the boys and more than that I was nearly identical in appearance. After consuming a couple hundred corpses the level of amplification on my strength had reached a solid nine times. I was already stronger than I was before I lost my powers, but at the same time it was also because I had enhanced the strength of my natural body. This time those cunts wouldn’t be able to dogpile me like before.

My senses had been enhanced to the point that I was able to track the direction that the invaders had retreated in. It felt pretty amazing to be able to sense and receive so much information. Certain things just clicked and my awareness of the world around me had heightened to such a degree that it approached omniscience. When I finished eating I returned to Mary and had her climb on my back. I left Elaine to deal with her wacky family and flew towards the trail the attackers had left behind.

***

“Are you just going to stand there and admire me all day?”

“…”

“If you have nothing better to do, why not beat me? You’re quite strong right?”

“…”

“Oh no! I am attacking you! Look at me trying to cause harm to you. This is very dangerous! Certainly a good enough reason for you to attack me.”

What a strange creature he was. He didn’t seem to care that she was holding him captive. He was obviously trying to encourage her to help him train but aside from that he didn’t bear any malice towards her. What was more surprising was that she couldn’t feel any lust towards her. There were few beings who were able to resist her appearance. If anything she felt a pleasant will towards herself, the feeling he gave her made her feel as if he was a bright sun trying to give her some warmth.

However, her senses warned that accepting that warmth would be dangerous. She had heard that too much of a good thing could become a bad thing but she had rarely experienced that phenomenon. His fist was still slowly traveling towards her face so she entertained his antics and blasted him into a wall with just enough force to damage his entire body without killing him. His body recovered within moments and he began his tirade again.

“I don’t really want to waste time so how about you just keep destroying my body without giving me a chance to rest. I’ll just stand here and wait for you to beat me.”

If he truly was the key to their survival then assisting his growth would only yield positive results for them. His mind had absolutely no thoughts of killing or destroying them and was completely occupied with gaining strength.

***

They really weren’t lying. But this inspired so many questions. How deeply rooted were these people rooted in society? How much of what happened in the world was influenced by them? And most importantly, how were they supposed to be held accountable for their actions? The difficulty they had in trying to find a single insane man had already crushed them, with the introduction of super humans came the introduction of super criminals.

The only thing that allowed society to remain standing was the simple fact that everyone could gain these powers. However, there were only a few ways to gain them. The first option was becoming a government agent and having your entire life monitored, the second was signing your soul away to one of the super factions, or third, finding your own method. Essentially it meant that no one had powers and even if you did you had no free will.

But what could the public do? There was really nothing you could do as a human in the face of a being that couldn’t be killed with the means in your possession. With her previous position as an officer she would be able to gain access to those abilities but she worried about her mother and sister.

“Your role in this world is far greater than you believe.”

Who? She rapidly checked her car and discovered an elderly woman sitting in the passenger seat.

“Do not fear. I have come to plead for your help. You are aware that the world is changing, yes?”

She nodded in affirmation.

“In the simplest terms. Some people are born to be different. You are one of those people. There are things I cannot tell you and things I must. What I can tell you is that you must continue training under your mentor’s guidance. Though not here with us in person they have already taught you the principles of their strength… and remember to hold what is most dear to you close, the pain of regret can drive anyone to madness.”

With those words the woman vanished. Her mentor’s guidance? Vaun? The principles to his strength? Had he been a super too? He did display inhuman feats of strength. What were the principles of his strength? All that they had done was train. If training could make everyone superhuman then the world should have been filled with super humans. What was different about Vaun then? Their method of training focused on causing stress by performing actions that they would be using, but many people also did that. Even the part where they pushed to their limits had already been done. So what made him different?

Hold what is most dear to you close, the pain of regret can drive anyone to madness.

What did that mean…? His family! He had lost his entire family! And- and if he was a super then everything that the serial killer had done was something he could have been capable of. But why would that woman tell her to keep her family safe if that was what triggered Vaun’s ascent into a inhuman killer? Did he already have the strength before he was driven into madness? If the loss of his family could make him insane then was his desire to have a family? No, more likely it was to protect his family. If she combined everything she knew together then it made sense.

Train with all your being to protect what you love, she had to train with a reason in mind. This wonderful realization was heavily dampened by the fact that the killer had been right under her nose and was completely toying with her. It was further smothered when she came to the conclusion that Vaun probably wasn’t dead. Whatever destroyed that neighborhood was probably caused by Vaun. He was still out there somewhere… lurking and waiting to create more chaos. It wouldn’t be long before his path of destruction reached her family.